Is it real or just another Clickbait? Netflix’s new thriller suspense drama just released and we are high on it. Created by Tony Ayres and Christian White, this miniseries had only 8 episodes, and that’s all it took to charm the world. It stars ever handsome Adrian Grenier as the protagonist, also charming Zoe Kazan and Betty Gabriel as the main characters of the show. We recommend watching the series before reading because we will give out spoilers. Now let’s dive right in.
Nick Brewer, a loving father, husband and brother, goes missing. Soon a video of him holding a sign is uploaded on the internet. It says “I abuse women. At 5 million views I die”. And that’s where the story begins. The family and police look for Nick, while a second video gets uploaded, which says “I kill Woman”. As the search intensifies, we learn facts about Nick, which we never knew existed. So, was he the kind, loving husband and son remembered by everyone, or was it all a hoax for the perfect crime?
After the trailer released, I know what we all thought. There’s nothing unique about this series. It’s the same old abduction thriller where we have a countdown time to find the victim. But as I watched the first episode, we felt the desire to keep watching. The writers cleverly gave us just the right amount of information, neither too less nor too much. You never for once fully realize what’s going on. With each passing episode, you think you get a hang of the story, or what could have happened, but you are always thrown off by the various twists and turns in the show. It’s just like opening a mystery box. There’s one little secret in every fold, and you have to unfold it all to learn the true message. The director made sure we are stuck to our screen till the end to discover the twists and turns.
Title of the show itself was an ingenious choice. The implicit concept of click baiting surrounding the story added a fine touch psychologically. The power that so many people over the internet hold over you unknowingly was shown abundantly. Also, how social media affected not only the victim but also the victim’s family is phenomenally presented.
The casts put on a mind-blowing show. Almost making it look so real that you hardly feel it’s just a show and not a real-life case. And what can we say about Pia and Sophie, they just pulled the whole series to another level with their performance. When you first watch them, Pia and Sophie feel very mainstream one way tracked characters, but as we move forward, we explore different layers of their character and it’s done beautifully.
One another reason this series stood out to me was how it played out the situation through the eyes of different people connected to the victim. Starting with the sister and then the wife and finally ending with “the answer” episode where the mystery is laid out. What was even better that they not only showed the victim’s family members, but all the people who are directly affected by the crime, such as the detective investigating the case, the reporter and also the culprit who planned the crime? Seeing all the characters so closely and methodically made us realise how sad and, at the same time, stressful the situation gets. We could actually feel their suffering, agony, and despair throughout the show.
Although the story was very well written, we can’t ignore the red flags that the series gives us. Such as the scene where Pia, although anxious about her brother, keeps on watching his video until it reaches 5 million views. It was immensely creepy, but now that we know she had nothing to do with the disappearance, we guess it was just for click baiting. Another interesting thing the writers threw in for added confusion was the intimate scenes of Nick and Emma. We know they never actually happened, so what was she thinking about?
Even if all the dots do not connect in the end, we greatly enjoyed the show. The series gave us a lot of “Gone Girl” and “Behind Her Eyes” vibes, but it doubtlessly stood out in a good way and satisfied our hunger for a good thriller suspense show. We are positive “Clickbait” will undeniably be remembered for many years for binge watching marathons. For more striking articles, check out “Reminiscence” .